The Crane Harp Ensemble

The Crane Harp Ensemble celebrates its fifteenth season with Fifteen Minutes of Fame, a composite work of fifteen one-minute pieces by fifteen different composers selected via competition. The Crane Harp Ensemble was founded in 1999 under the direction of Dr. Jessica Suchy-Pilalis, Professor of Harp and Music Theory at the Crane School of Music, SUNY-Potsdam. The ensemble enjoys playing new and unusual music for multiple harps. In addition to the Fifteen Minutes of Fame “suite”, two other works featured on this concert have been written for the Crane Harp Ensemble: Ryan Mix’s When/Where Lightning Strikes at the T and Two Brothers Dance in Spacetime: Two Amalgamating Memories of Adolescence and their Art of Deliquescing Entropy, and a newly-commissioned work by John Paul Brabant titled Soliloquy. Also on this program are Domenick Argento’s The Angel Israfil, Caroline Lizotte’s Raga, Gregoria Karides Suchy’s Save, O Lord, Thy People and Sufjan Steven’s Chicago, arranged by Mikaela Davis.

Director Jessica Suchy-Pilalis

Dominick Argento is considered to be America's leading composer of lyric opera. He has written thirteen operas; most have been performed in both Europe and the U.S. The majority of his music is vocal; all of it - instrumental and vocal - displays a natural dramatic impulse. In a predominantly tonal context, his music freely combines tonality, atonality and 12-tone writing. He on the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf.

John Paul Brabant composes as a means to evoke critical thought in the minds of the listeners by inspiring change within one’s own inner self, whether it be through stirring the emotions via conscious orchestration choices or piquing the intellect to spread aloha. John Paul holds degrees from the Crane School of Music, New York University, and is currently working towards a PhD at the University of Hawaii Manoa.

Caroline Lizotte has held the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s second harp chair since 2003, and the principal harp chair with the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières since 1995. Aside from her career as a harpist, Lizotte is a Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer. Her compositions and transcriptions for harp are played in Canada, U.S.A., England, Switzerland, France, Japan and China.“Odyssée” for solo harp won the fourth place on the 2010 USA International Harp Competition Composition Contest. Born in Québec City, Lizotte graduated from the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec and studied at the Eastman School of Music. She is now professor of harp at the Conservatoire de Musique de Trois-Rivières and at the Université de Montréal’s Music Faculty.

Ryan Mix developed a passion for music as he studied the bass trombone first in Rochester, then Potsdam, NY. He was most prolific in music composition while at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam where he earned a BM in music education before returning to Rochester to teach. When/Where Lightning Strikes at the T and Two Brothers Dance in Spacetime: Two Amalgamating Memories of Adolescence and their Art of Deliquescing Entropy was written for the Crane Harp Ensemble. Presently, Ryan is a Registered Piano Technician with the Piano Technicians Guild and enjoys the processes of both piano and house restoration.

Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came. He is best known for his 2005 album, Illinois, which hit number one in the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the song "Chicago.” Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of Enjoy Your Rabbit and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. Stevens makes use of a variety of instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording, and writes music in various time signatures.

Gregoria Karides Suchy is Professor Emerita of Composition and Music Technology at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. She studied composition with J. Thomas Oakes, Anthony Donato, (Northwestern University), Alexander Tcherepnin (DePaul University), Rudolph Ganz (Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University) and with Ralph Shapey (University of Chicago). The recipient of numerous grants for composition, her musical output covers a variety of media, including electronic. Her compositions, many of which have received awards and prizes, have been performed by eminent artists and/or groups including the New York Contemporary Chamber Ensemble; the International Society of Contemporary Music; Rudolph Ganz, piano; Leonard Sorkin and Gerald Fischbach, violins; also, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (American Composers Festival); and the National Association of Composers-USA!"

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Remarkable Theater Brigade creates and produces new works including operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electro-acoustic works and co-produces the Composer's Voice Concert Series concerts. Remarkable Theater Brigade was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer, Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn.

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Vox Novus promotes contemporary music and its creators through concerts, recordings, publications, broadcasts, and online publicity. Vox Novus believes strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music, recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and audience, providing greater exposure to new music.